SYDNEY:
Parts of Western Australia were battered by an “extreme” heatwave on Saturday, raising the risk of bushfires in the sprawling state, the country’s weather forecaster said.
The Bureau of Meteorology had an “extreme heatwave warning” on Saturday for the remote Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Australia’s largest state, warning that temperatures there could reach 40C over the weekend.
In the Pilbara mining town of Paraburdoo, about 1,500 km (930 miles) north of the state capital Perth, a maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was forecast on Saturday, more than six degrees above the average January maximum. according to the forecast data. The temperature was 42.7 C (108.8 F) there at 11:00 AM. (03:00 GMT).
Australia’s highest temperature on record of 50.7 C (123.2 F) was recorded at Onslow Airport in the Pilbara on 13 January 2022.
Reading: Forest department on ‘red alert’ as fires grow
Saturday’s warm weather increases the risk of wildfires in an already high-risk fire season, amid an El Nino weather pattern typically associated with extremes such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
“Very hot and dry conditions combined with fresh southerly winds and a fresh to strong westerly to south-westerly sea breeze will lead to increased fire risks on Saturday,” the forecaster said on its website, referring to part of the Pilbara.
The warning comes after hundreds of firefighters earlier this month was fighting an out-of-control wildfire near Perth amid high temperatures, prompting evacuations.
Australia’s last two fire seasons paled in comparison to the 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of bushfires that ravaged an area the size of Turkey, killing 33 people, 3 billion animals and trillions of invertebrates.
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